


Ingemination

by schizoauthoress



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Hypertime is in a bad mood, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 19:38:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13643085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schizoauthoress/pseuds/schizoauthoress
Summary: Prompt/Fill: from Zero, "booster getting stranded on another earth where ted is alive and booster isnt… oh boy punch me in the face with that angst"Summary: Hypertime is full of infinite possiblities.  Booster Gold kinda wishes he'd never stumbled on this one, but a malfunctioning Time Sphere can't be argued with.





	Ingemination

The sensors are screaming at him, instruments telling Michael what he already knows in his bones -- he's made a serious mistake. He's headed for 21st century Earth, but he doesn't know which timeline he's accidentally put the Time Sphere on. He doesn't dare risk a correction right now. Certain aspects of Hypertime can be plotted, calculated, projected... and others are less certain.

Hypertime might be in a bad mood.

Michael straps in and double-checks that the consequence baffles are still working -- he'll enter the timeline at the place least likely, at that particular moment, to cause major ripples in history. He nods to himself when he reads the output, and mutters, "At least I won't park on Barry Allen as a kid or something..."

The Time Sphere lurches and shudders, and Michael -- heart pounding hard in his chest -- wraps a hand around the emergency brake. He takes a deep breath and pulls, slow and steady, fighting the impulse to yank back on it. The craft steadies, then stills.

Michael takes a moment to just breathe. Then, when he looks at the readout from the external sensors, he frowns.

This isn't something he can hop back into the timestream from, after some recalculations. He needs to find out the history of this world, and that means seeking out its heroes.

****

"Time traveller!" Booster Gold hollers, dodging the punch of a giant green robot fist from the timeline's Green Lantern. "Alternate universe! I come in peace!"

Every instinct in him is screaming at him to keep moving -- the Justice League is coming after him! -- but he deliberately stays still, hands empty and in the air. This is not what they were expecting, he knows. He'd be thrown off if some evil clone or robot double suddenly stopped fighting him off, too. That's what he's counting on -- that they'll stop trying to punch his head off his shoulders long enough for him to explain his current dilemma.

Booster's gaze darts around each member of the team he can see. That Green Lantern is probably Kyle Rayner. Whoever is wearing Vixen's Tantu Totem isn't Mari, but he doesn't recognize her at all. That Batman probably isn't the first one, but it's not Nightwing under the cape either. There's a woman of similar build to Power Girl, wearing all black, with short, dark hair -- he doesn't recognize her face either, but given the red of her eyes he's pretty sure she's Kryptonian like Power Girl.

Feeling the loop of Wonder Woman's golden lasso snare his wrist is a relief.

"I'm Booster Gold," he starts to say.

A familiar voice cuts him off. "We _know_." Booster feels like a hand has reached inside his chest and squeezed his heart.

That's Ted. That's Ted, and he sounds furious.

Booster stays very still, and only turns his head toward the sound of Ted's voice. He swallows hard, and says roughly, "I ended up in the wrong timeline. I'm not here to hurt anybody."

But Booster knows he already has.

****

In most cases, for most alternate universe mishaps, he can rejoin the correct timeline by using his alternate's personal Hypertime signature as a reference point. That's not an option here.

His alternate is dead.

Michael doesn't want to know how, but it's important to find out. He can go backward, to when his alternate was still alive, and then make the jump to the correct timeline from then and there. But he asks Superman -- who is a man named Dru-Zod, not Kal-El -- instead of any version of his friends. Michael doesn't know this Superman, so it doesn't hurt (quite so much) to see the pain his questions cause.

****

"Wait, who _is_ Loren Jupiter?"

"The Black King," Superman answers.

'Checkmate,' Michael realizes. 

The details change, sometimes, but the organization is still dedicated to the policing of superpowered beings. Max wasn't the Black King. Maybe Max is still alive.

'That's another person to avoid,' Michael thinks, but then he sees how Superman is looking at him. Aloud, he makes a questioning noise. "Hm?"

"You don't know him?" Superman asks.

Michael frowns. "Should I?"

"Well..." Superman weighs his words for a moment, then says bluntly, "He killed you."

"He killed me in this timeline," Michael replies, unphased by the words or the tone. (It would be a different story if one of his friends said that to him.) "I don't think I've even met the man in mine. Besides, it's the 'where' and the 'when' that are more important to getting me home."

Even though this Superman is not the same Kryptonian that Michael knows, there's something familiar in the measuring look that he gives Michael. Perhaps it's a side effect of wearing the mantle of leader among superheroes. His tone is clipped, perhaps slightly suspicious, as he says, "You're not surprised that the Black King killed one of us. I don't think you're even surprised that it was you."

Michael shrugs. "Time isn't entirely flexible. There are certain 'fixed points' that a time traveller can't alter."

"You're telling me that our Booster Gold had to die?"

Michael thinks back to the way things were, before Ted was murdered by Max in his world. And then he asks, "Do you think you would have noticed Checkmate's shady dealings in time to stop them if he hadn't?"

****

Michael is scribbling calculations on a whiteboard -- he does better with the color-coding that's afforded to him by dry erase markers, and...

Honestly, the smell of chalk reminds him of Rip Hunter's blackboard, and the vaguely apocalyptic messages that would crowd onto it whether Rip wrote them there or not. He needs to focus, when doing these sort of calculations longhand.

"You copied that product incorrectly," Ted comments behind him.

Michael startles, then turns. This world's Ted is studying his scribbles with a mystified sort of interest. "What?" is all that comes out of his mouth. Ted looks at Michael, really looks at him.

Ted's smile is small and one-sided, but his eyes are soft as he points out the last side calculation Michael had to do. "Twelve multiplied by twenty-three is two hundred and seventy-six. But you wrote 2-7-5 just now."

"Oh." Michael swipes the last digit away with his thumb and replaces it with a six. Ted winces at that. Michael has to laugh. "Don't worry, I'll actually spray the board down and clean it when I'm done."

Ted goes still, and quiet. Michael, wondering what he's done wrong, sneaks a look over.

"Booster... my Booster would have teased me about being picky," Ted murmurs.

Michael keeps his own hurt hidden. It won't help right now. He says, quietly, "I'm not the Booster you knew."

"I know that." Ted frowns, and repeats it, like he's trying to convince himself, "I _know_ that." 

"But you wanted to pretend, just a little." Michael puts the cap back on the marker and sets it down, then deliberately turns to face Ted. Ted avoids his eyes, but Michael doesn't let that stop him from saying, "I get it. Believe me, I get it."

"I... I should go," Ted stammers.

Michael lets him.

Michael knows he shouldn't be distracted from leaving here as soon as possible. He's so tempted 'pull an Atom' and stay...

'What about Rani?' Michael asks himself, deliberately, to banish those irresponsible thoughts. He has to get home.

****

Michael doesn't seek out company, but he doesn't turn away anyone who wants to visit with him, either. He knows what it's like to want a friend back, after all. He ignored the rules of time and all warnings to the contrary to save Ted from death once.

This timeline's Booster Gold went further than that -- further than Michael was willing to go. Maybe the alternate Booster thought people wouldn't miss him as much.

He was wrong.

****

"You've got everything you need, huh?" Ted asks. "Almost ready to head home."

"To the right time and place," Michael nods, and manages a small smile. "I really appreciate that you guys let me stay, and kept me secret."

"Well... to the civilians, at least." Ted concedes. He smiles back.

"It might have attracted the attention of another Time Master and gotten me home sooner," Michael jokes. "Since I wouldn't have to do all the math by myself."

"I... liked having you around." Ted says quietly. And then he leans closer, and plants a kiss on Michael's mouth.

Oh, there's a part of Michael that wants to kiss back. But he brings up his hands and pushes against Ted's chest to break the kiss instead. "Ted... I'm _not_ your Michael."

Ted looks like he wants to cry, looks furious with himself -- either for allowing himself to forget, or for kissing Michael at all. He backs away, putting distance between them. He exhales harshly, rubs at his face, and says,

"I never told him. I never told him... how I felt."

"I don't know if this will help," Michael says, "But my Ted never said anything like that either."

Ted stares at Michael, something awful and desperate in those wide, hurting eyes. And Michael says the only thing he can, despite knowing how much it will hurt to hear.

"He didn't have to," Michael admits, "but I knew. Because I love him, too."

Ted hides his face, curls in on himself, and weeps. And Michael isn't ready to go home just yet -- Michael wraps Ted up in a hug until the tears stop.

"Sorry," Ted mutters, once he's able to speak again. He pulls away and scrubs at his face. "I just... sorry."

"It's okay," Michael says. "Sometimes you just need a hug. My daughter taught me that."

****

He doesn't stay. He doesn't take Ted back with him. 

Who knows what he'd break if he did.

This Ted has a young superhero to mentor -- and this world's Jaime Reyes is going to be the envy of the one back home, if Michael tells of his adventures. And Michael has a family to go back to. So they know they'd break more than a few hearts if they acted selfish.

Michael can settle for breaking his own heart. He's done it before, and he'll do it again.

(Time travellers are good at repetition.)

*-*-*-*-*


End file.
